


Jason's mouse

by Featherly



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Death, Dicks a murderer, Fluff, Jasons best friend, Sadness, Saved animal, animal testing, mouse - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 03:19:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8473456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Featherly/pseuds/Featherly
Summary: Jason saved a mouse months ago. It was his own little secret, only, he really shouldn't have kept her a secret.





	

“And if it happens again, you're not going on patrol for another two months.” yelled Bruce from downstairs. Jason didn’t reply, but slammed his bedroom door in response. He saw movement from under his bed streak to behind his bookshelf, making the wrinkled anger on his face change to a softer look as he regret what he had done.

“Sorry girl.” said Jason, kneeling beside his bookshelf. He put a hand out invitingly to the mouse to let her step onto it, and beckoned her out with a piece of old bread crust when she wouldn’t. He held it just out of her reach and lead the small grey mouse into the light of the room where she took the offered food and stood eating it.

“Atta girl” cooed Jason, stroking the animal on the ground with one finger. Once the small animal finished eating, Jason picked her up under her arms with two fingers and plopped her into his other hand. “I didn’t mean to spook you Beccy, honestly. I just wanted to get under Bruce’s skin. He was even more of an arse tonight. Wouldn’t let me go to a party, and yelled at me when I tried to go anyway. Like, I always sit through his boring parties, but can’t go to my friend’s fun ones?”

He ranted to this little mouse, and she seemed to be listening from the palm of his hand. She stood on her hind legs and watched him, he ears twitching every so often as he spoke. When he had finally finished talking, she got down on her front paws again, and Jason gave her a rub on the head. She nibbled his finger in response.

“Thanks for listening little girl.” said a now calm Jason, a smile on his face.

Jason found Beccy on a patrol once around six months prior, when Batman and Robin raided a facility holding illigal animal testing. Beccy was one of the mice about to be used to test a dangerous toxin that would have melted her skin away exposing her muscles, but keeping her alive. Jason swiped her a moment before this happened by knocking out the ‘person’ doing it before he even realised the duo were there. Noone else knew about Beccy, but she had been living in Jason’s room ever since. He loved his little mouse, and she loved him back.

He stripped to underwear, collapsed on his bed, and switched on the TV at the end of it. Some documentary on polar bears was on, so he watched that with his sweet Beccy sitting on his chest. He began to nod off soon after he had turned the TV on, and was asleep before the first ad break.

Not too long after Jason fell asleep, there was a knock on his door. “Jason?” whispered a voice. Beccy heard the noise above the TV, and ran underneath Jason’s covers for safety. “Jason, you didn’t fall asleep with your TV on again did you?” asked Dick, opening the door.

He saw Jason sleeping peacefully with the flashing of the TV lighting up his room. “For God’s sake.” whispered Dick before he flicked off the device. He wasn’t really mad though.

He looked at the one he considered his younger brother and felt a pang of guilt. He had heard of his and Bruce’s arguement that night. Bruce told his own story in a very bias way, but even then Dick couldn’t help but take Jason’s side.

“I’ll take you to the next party myself. Bruce doesn’t even need to know about it.” said Dick to the sleeping boy. Jason couldn’t hear him, but it still meant something to Dick.

He brushed a hand down Jason’s face, and curled his fingers around his covers to pull them up to properly cover the younger boy. He pulled them above Jason’s elbow when a sharp pain formed in his middle finger.

Dick pulled back with a scream, and Jason woke up with a tired question of “what?” Dick flung his arm away from Jason and swatted his hand towards Jason’s bookshelf where the thing that had latched onto him flew. He recognised it as a mouse and ran out of the room screaming “ALFRED! GET THE TRAPS! THERES AN INFESTATION AND ONE WAS IN, YES IN JASON’S BED!”

Jason took a moment to understand what had just transpired, got out of bed, and turned on the light. His heart sunk into his stomach when he heard quiet, breathy squeaks coming from his shelf. He ran to Beccy and fell next to her, but he didn’t touch her. “Beccy, baby?

Beccy was lying on her side in a curled up position, shivering. Her tail was curled up under her, and her mouth wouldn’t close. Her breathing sounded desperate, and there was blood coming from her nose, mouth, and ears.

“Beccy, please no.” said Jason in a husky voice as he collected her into the palm of his hand. The little mouse spasmed, and her head kept flopping up and down. Jason moved a finger under her head as if it were a pillow and helped the little mouse look him in the eyes. Beccy sniffed at him as if to say ‘sorry’, before she closed her eyes for the last time, dying in her best friend’s hand.

Dick, Alfred and Bruce burst into Jason’s room, mouse traps and poison at the ready. They saw Jason kneeling away from them, his arms up and his shoulders heaving as he cried. 

“Jason?” asked Dick. 

“She was my best friend.” was all Jason could say. He looked so small at that moment.

“Who was your best friend?” 

Jason didn’t reply. He was too far gone. He had saved this little mouse from a terrible pain, only to have her die from head trauma under his care. 

He held Beccy’s body close to his heart and refused to move his arms, even when Bruce and Alfred grabbed one each in an attempt to pry away his hands and see what he was holding.

“Get yourself together Jason.” warned Bruce, taking his shoulders in each hand. When Jason continued to cry, and refused to move, Bruce picked the 16 year old up under the arms and around his chest and carried him downstairs. Jason didn’t even try to struggle against him.

Bruce plonked him down in the couch and saw that he still had his hands firmly in place. “Show me the mouse.” said Bruce.

Jason didn’t seem to hear him. He was in his own little world now, one where Beccy was okay and still there for him when noone else was. This thought slowed his breathing. “Oh Beccy.” he moaned. Bruce caught this, but it didn’t answer any of his unasked questions.

Jason’s eyes were closed, and he was starting to visably relax. Bruce took advantage of this moment and ripped Jason’s hands apart, grabhing the dead mouse by the tail. He held it up to his face and then looked threateningly at Jason, only to find a more deadly look on the younger’s face. Bruce recoiled for a second, before regaining his composure.

“This is from that raid 6 months ago. I recognise the strain of mouse. I’ve told you before not to bring ‘souviners’ home. What, the hell, is this?” asked Bruce dangling the animal in front of Jason’s face now.

Something snapped inside Jason then.  
The red faced boy grabbed his mouse in his hand before Bruce even realised he had moved, and Jason slammed the older, taller man to the ground. He had his legs on either side of the fallen man, and he screamed as he hit Bruce, giving him an impressive shiner he would have to cover up for the next few weeks. He slammed his fist down into Bruce’s face and chest and hit him over and over with cries of “how dare you” and “You hate me.” Jason finished by collapsing into Bruce’s chest, and continued to cry.

Dick and Alfred took a break from setting traps and planting poison to go downstairs and see what the commotion was about. They saw Jason with his hands still clamped crying on Bruce who seemed pretty beaten up and confused as to what he should do. He put a hand on Jason’s back before bringing him into a full hug. 

“I’m sorry for your loss.” said Bruce, finally realising what had happened from Jason’s perspective. Now wasn’t the moment to be lecturing him. Now he needed to just... Accept him.

They stayed there for some time before Jason became much calmer, though his breathing was still erratic. Bruce opened Jason’s hands and took the mouse’s body. Jason watched his every move from the ground as he searched through a drawer one handed and pulled out a small box which held a watch at some point. He placed the animal in the box and gave the box to Jason.

“You can bury it-”

“Her.” interrupted Jason.

“Her, wherever you want.”

Jason stood and wiped his wet face with his bare arm. He was still pretty much naked.

He went to his room and got dressed in a grey T-shirt and some black jeans before he sat on his bed and opened the box. He picked up the mouse again. She was already becoming stiff.

He held her close to his ear desperate for some sign of life; a tiny breath, a faint heartbeat, anything. “I’m so sorry Beccy.” said Jason, replacing the mouse in the box.

He left the house in a daze, and dug a deep but narrow hole in the far end of the backyard next to a bush that gave him his favourite berries. When he placed Beccy into the hole, he stopped, just watched the pet that had given him so much happiness over the past few months. His best friend. 

He sat at the edge of the small hole and looked into it. Minutes passed before footsteps could be heard coming towards him. He knew from the heaviness of them that it was Alfred.

“I’m going to have to wash those you know.” said the butler, standing next to Jason.

“Sorry Alfred.” said Jason, standing up. He began to fill in the hole.

There was an awkward silence from Alfred. He had only meant to relieve the tension.

“Dick feels terrible about this whole ordeal.” said Alfred, trying again. Jason didn’t reply. “He said he didn’t know it was a pet.”

“She was more than a pet." Jason replied.

“Your friend then. Please understand that he only meant to protect you. He saw a mouse, he panicked, he ran and told us.”

“I don’t care what he meant to do. He killed my friend.”

Alfred sighed. Jason finished filling in the tiny grave when Alfred passed something to him. It was a small wooden cross and a permenant marker.

Jason took these and wrote on the cross; ‘here lies Beccy: my best friend’. He stuck it in the ground behind her grave and watched it for a little while longer. Alfred stayed by his side.

“I wont forgive him” said Jason. Alfred said nothing.

The older man nodded at the grave and then turned around to walk away, and Jason followed some paces behind him towards the light of the manor. Alfred opened the door and let Jason through first without a thanks. Jason walked towards the stairs but stopped on the first one upon hearing sobbing coming from the dining room. Jason listened as Bruce comforted Dick.

“It wasn’t your fault Dick. Im sure Jason will forgive you.”

“I won’t blame him if he doesn’t.” said Dick in a hurt whisper “I ruined something that brought him so much joy. I wish I could make it up to him somehow.”

Jason didn’t bother listening to any more. His head hurt, his heart hurt, and he just wanted to go to bed and forget. Only, when he was finally lying in bed and under his covers struggling to sleep, he couldn’t help but notice the light weight missing from his chest.


End file.
